I owe everyone who subscribed to this blog an apology. You expected Ruth Truth updates, and I have not written any! Remember when I said that I would try to write updates weekly? Ha! I thought I might be overpromising, but I didn't realize I would be this far off the mark! That said, you can expect two more Miss Roo's News posts coming over the next few days.

Thank you for patiently bearing with us, thank you for kindly asking after us, and thank you for diligently praying for us. 

Time has passed strangely the past several months. Six months felt like six years. I've spent a lot of time in Narnia recently (on my own and with Martha), and now I understand on a deeper level what Mr. Tumnus meant by, "Always winter, but never Christmas." Here are some updates and reflections from winter.

If you told me back in October that December was going to be the hardest month yet, I wouldn’t have believed you. I thought we had been through the worst of it. I was wrong.

We’ve been wary of sickness for Ruth’s sake. But as cautious as we were, we still got walloped. I won't go into all the details, but not one of us was spared over the course of the month (my mom is living with us, so this includes her too). At one point Lauren was so sick that she didn't hold Ruth for two weeks! All of this made our long, days even more exhausting as we shouldered the load for each other. Through it all we continued to learn to cast ourselves on the Lord. We were thankful that God answered our prayers and kept Ruth from more hospitalization, though we did make a couple of trips to the ER.

On top of all this, Ruth was vomiting at least once a day, and we were still in the three-month window that Ruth’s G-tube needed to fully heal. Both took a lot of care and maintenance and often caused Ruth pain. We were always trying to optimize Ruth's feeds so she wouldn't, as Lauren says, "Toss her cookies," which meant everything from slower feeds to making sure she slept propped up—usually in our arms. We were also regularly checking her G-tube site. If we left the G-tube site alone, too much granulation tissue would develop. If we went too far in treating the granulation tissue, we risked skin breakdown. It was a difficult balancing act, and much of the credit goes to Lauren and my mom for their hard work getting it right. 

It was a grueling month. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone nor would I want to repeat it. But now I’m able to give God thanks for it. Meditating on the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:17 has helped immensely in that that. 

2 Corinthians 4:17

This verse has been an anchor point for me. I’ll have to expand on it as a One-Verse Wonder at some point.

We reached the end of ourselves in December. We went from exile in Iowa City to house arrest in Cedar Falls. It was bleak and despairing. But in the midst of this darkest month, we were reminded that Jesus enters into our misery and distress. Praise God for Christmas!

Despite a difficult and trying season, Christmas day and my birthday (in January) were true respites. I’ve taken to thinking of days like them as refuge days. They were tangible reminders that the Lord is our refuge. They were blessed gifts from God. In the past I wouldn’t have thought of them like that. They would have seemed too mundane, and I would have felt entitled to them. But now I see that Christ makes even the normal sacred.

The Lord Jesus in the business of redemption. Ruth Truth reminds us of this every day. She is aptly named.